The invention relates to multi-conductor cable for the transmission of high speed electrical signals. More particularly, the invention relates to woven electrical transmission cable having a plurality of electrical conductors bound in a prescribed weave pattern which may be folded into multiple layers with breakouts for making selected terminations.
Electrical transmission cables have been made in laminated cables and woven cables. In the laminated construction, the conductors are arranged in a desired pattern and encapsulated in a suitable material such as Teflon or other polymeric material. Woven electrical transmission cables typically include warp and weft yarns interwoven with electrical conductors in various configurations and patterns. In addition to interweaving conductors, it has been known to weave harnesses about the conductors wherein interweaving does not actually occur between the warp and weft yarns and the conductors, but jackets and other arrangements are woven about the conductors to harness them in a prescribed manner. U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,622 discloses a multi-conductor cable harness having breakouts occurring at successive stages of the harness cover. It has also been known to form branches off of a main trunk section of a cable by severing weft elements forming a plastic sheath as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,903. The use of hinge lines is also known, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,025 wherein a narrow web containing no conductors is woven between adjacent sections of conductors. Cut line cable is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,394 which separates conductors into two sections that may be cut along the cut line with the severed sections remaining intact due to the weave pattern. Cables stacked upon one another in a superposed manner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,120.
While the above woven electrical transmission cables are illustrative of the numerous types of specialized cable which have been provided for special applications, it is desirable to provide a single cable woven so as to be foldable into multiple layers for compactness and having breakouts which may be expeditiously used in the multilayer configuration for termination at selected intervals.
Accordingly, an important object of the invention is to provide a woven electrical transmission cable which is simple in construction and yet may be used in a variety of configurations.
Another object of the invention is to provide a woven electrical transmission cable which may be used in a flat configuration with breakouts or may be used in a stacked multilayer configuration with breakouts for routing of conductors in a variety of applications.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a woven cable and method in which individual warp conductors may be bound in a prescribed weave pattern and broken out from the pattern in either a flat or a multiple layer configuration for use in a variety of applications.